twyndyllyngs
plural noun

- Twins; two children or animals born at the same birth.

- A twinling; a young or small twin.

- Twinling — a twin; sometimes a young or small twin, especially a twin lamb.

Wiktionary, Collins Dictionary, YourDictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

The word twyndyllyngs is a magnificent relic of Middle English orthography. It derives from the Proto-Germanic root twis- (meaning "twice" or "two"), which evolved into the Old English getwinn (twin).

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the diminutive suffix "-ling" (used to denote affection or smallness, as in duckling or darling) was added to create twinling. During this period, English spelling was highly unstandardized. Scribes frequently substituted the letter "Y" for "I" to make words easier to read among the vertical pen strokes (minims) of Gothic script. Thus, twinlings became the vowel-less looking twyndyllyngs.

BTW, it’s easy to speak if you remember that the “y” is acting as an “i” - simply say “twin-dil-lings”.

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WHY THE “Y” ?


“Twyndyllyngs” looks like a typo,… or maybe something Welsh. It actually means twinlings—an old word for twins. You're not likely to hear it in a maternity ward or in a birth announcement. Nobody writes "Congratulations on your twyndyllyngs!" unless they're a medievalist or one OWAD reader writing to another :-)

Twyndyllyngs is one of the longest English words with no true vowels. No A, E, I, O, or U — just Y doing all the heavy lifting. In English, Y can switch roles depending on where it appears: at the start of a word, it’s usually a consonant, as in yes;... inside words like crypt, gym, gypsy, hymn, myth, rhythm, symbol, and syrup, it stands in for the vowel “i”.

In the 15th century, spelling had very few rules. Scribes used Y to fill out the line, and ended up with a happy accident: a word about twins that looks like it’s multiplying itself on the page.

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS



clones, couple, counterparts, double(s), doublets, duplicates, duo, dyad, Geminis, matched pair, matches, mates, pair(s), ringer, siblings, spitting images, twain, twinborn children, twin pair, twin siblings, twinlings, twinnies, twins, two of a kind, twos, twosomes, TWYNDYLLYNGS

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:



“It's easy and fun to pronounce the word TWYNDYLLYNGS (the y’s are functioning as i’s) ... simply say twin-dil-lings. “

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